


Expense of Spirit

by corialis



Category: Honoo no Mirage | Mirage of Blaze
Genre: M/M, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-18
Updated: 2010-07-18
Packaged: 2017-10-10 15:33:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corialis/pseuds/corialis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The expense of spirit in a waste of shame / Is lust in action; and till action, lust / Is perjured. (Or: Chiaki decides to solve all of Naoe and Takaya's problems. With sex. Assorted combinations of the three ensue.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expense of Spirit

_"You know," Haruie muttered balefully after being subjected to yet another of his tirades, "if you're so upset by Naoe and Kagetora being idiots, why don't you just stop yelling at them and actually do something?"_

"I'm trying!" he said.

"Not hard enough, obviously."

"I'd like to see you come up with some brilliant idea."

"I can't, and you know it," she turned to look at him with a sadder expression than he had expected. "This doesn't just affect you, so stop being so selfish. Don't you think it's hard on me to see him like this?"

Nagahide tells himself it's Haruie's fault that he now has a desperate, needy Kagetora clutching his upper arms so hard he thinks he's going to have bruises in the morning and kissing him like he thinks Nagahide can save him from himself.

Naoe is, of course, going to kill him when he finds out about this, even if all goes according to plan and works Naoe's eventual favor, but that sort of thinking is not going to get this anywhere. Better to abandon rational thought altogether. He kisses Kagetora back with equal intensity, and he hopes. Because yes, Naoe will kill him, and the last thing he wants is to get himself too far involved in the twisted love-hate affair that Naoe and Kagetora have had going for centuries, but someone has to end things. He's always had a bit of a talent in that area, and he's gotten so sick of the whole concern that throwing caution to the proverbial winds seems to work as a last resort.

"Kagetora," he says, breaking the kiss, before Kagetora sharply cuts him off.

"Don't call me that," he growls. "Not now."

Nagahide idly thinks he should protest this, but instead he smirks slightly. Names are more important to them than Takaya remembers; Kagetora would never have stood for this. "Takaya."

And then Kagetora – no, not Kagetora, Takaya for now – is kissing him again and Nagahide slides one hand behind Takaya's neck to pull him closer because even if he doesn't understand why he thought this was a good idea, he understands this, and Takaya takes one hand away from Nagahide's hips to pull off his glasses and toss them aside.

_After he passed Naoe in the hallway he looked at his watch and noted the time. Perhaps the bar wasn't the best place he could have gone, because it had only taken one lifetime to learn that frustration and drinking was bad combination._

After an hour or so, he went to the hotel room Naoe was sharing with Kagetora.

He didn't expect to walk in on Kagetora sitting at the table with his head in his hands and his teeth nearly biting a hole through his lip.

"Kagetora?" he asked, hesitantly.

"Fuck off," was the choked reply.

"I'm not going to leave you like this," he said, probably more hostile than he intended, but if he had to watch Kagetora self-destruct again he'd seriously consider killing him and praying his next incarnation didn't have Ougi Takaya's insecurities in addition to the ones Kagetora's been building up. It frustrated him when things don't go according to plan, and Kagetora was so very annoying sometimes.

"Yes you are, now get the hell away from me," Kagetora yelled and turned toward Nagahide, slamming one hand down on the desk.

"You're going to hurt yourself with your own stupidity if you do things like that," he said, and grabbed Kagetora's wrist. He was completely unprepared for Kagetora's sudden lunge, knocking him backwards onto the nearby chair against the wall.

No one had warned him that Kagetora's lack of memories had also led to a disturbing lack of emotional control and he found himself with a lapful of blindly frustrated teenage boy.

"Bastard," Kagetora hissed, and tried to slap Nagahide before Nagahide grabbed hold of the wrist he wasn't holding with his other hand.

"You need to calm the hell down," Nagahide said angrily, and as Kagetora glared at him ineffectually he mildly wondered if jealousy would be sufficient motivation for Naoe this time around, since everything else so far has failed.

"Make me."

Wrong answer, Kagetora, Nagahide thought amusedly before pulling Kagetora's wrists forward so Kagetora's almost sprawled completely over him and their chests are touching. He put his hands on the sides of Kagetora's head and tugs him in for a kiss and Kagetora freezes, shocked, but Nagahide does not relent and he knows that Kagetora wants this as he feels a hand tighten on his hip.

Doesn't want Nagahide, of course, only what he's offering, but Nagahide's willing to be a substitute for what Takaya's really been waiting for.

The glasses land somewhere on the floor and Nagahide laughs into Takaya's mouth as he slides a hand up Takaya's shirt and Takaya moans. The boy is amazingly receptive.

"Naoe's going to fucking kill you," Takaya says, panting, as he breaks the kiss to breathe.

Nagahide shrugs. "He can try," he smirks, and Takaya gasps sharply as Nagahide drags his hand back down his side, gentle but edged with sharp, uneven fingernails, and flicks open the button on his jeans. His head falls back and as Nagahide leans in to run his tongue up the arch of Takaya's neck he can see movement behind them but can't bring himself to care for the moment. Takaya moans and Nagahide marvels at his good timing before he kisses him again, hard and insistent, and Takaya arches into him.

The sound of footsteps precludes Naoe's hands on Takaya's waist pulling him backward but Nagahide loops his fingers through one of Takaya's belt loops and refuses to let go. "Here to ruin all the fun, Naoe?"

Naoe ignores him. "Kagetora-sama, what are you doing?"

Nagahide laughs, and Takaya tilts his head back to look at Naoe. "I'm not Kagetora," he sullenly informs him.

"Not right now you aren't," Nagahide smirks and Naoe winces, letting go of Takaya and stepping backward.

"Whether you think so or not," he manages with impressive calm, "both of you, Takaya-san is Kagetora-sama, and no amount of denial is going to change that."

"And I suppose next you're going to say that by logical extension, that means he's yours."

Naoe's failure to immediately deny Nagahide's words says enough.

"I don't belong to anyone," Takaya scowls, "And least of all you."

Nagahide snickers again at Naoe's astonishing gift for always doing the wrong thing and is sharply cut off when Takaya kisses him again, and he can hear Naoe inhale sharply behind them. He smiles against Takaya's mouth and unzips his jeans, smug in the knowledge that Naoe is in agony with every movement he makes as he slides one hand inside Takaya's pants. Naoe growls as Takaya curses and presses closer to Nagahide and Nagahide dimly thinks that while this may have not been his smartest idea, at least it seems like it's working.

This time Naoe pulls him backward too sharply for Nagahide to do anything about it and catches Takaya as he stumbles. "You belong to me," he says, voice low and harsh, "and don't forget it."

Nagahide leans forward to reach for his glasses as Naoe kisses Takaya, hard and possessive, and Takaya looks more debauched than Nagahide's ever imagined he could with his messy hair, hands fisted in Naoe's jacket, shirt disheveled and pants half-open. Naoe curls one hand around Takaya's hip, entangles the other in his hair because Takaya's not going to get away this time and presses Takaya back against the table he'd been sitting at when Nagahide had first walked in.

They do, Nagahide admits to himself, make a pretty picture. He's still sprawled in the chair, legs spread, and he realizes he probably looks just as depraved as Takaya with his glasses askew from being unceremoniously shoved back on and lips still swollen, and his arms are turning red where Takaya clung to him. He's crossed his arms but his hand has started drifting down almost of its own accord and he bites his lip as he smirks slightly and undoes his own jeans as deftly as he did Takaya's.

"I'm still not yours," Takaya breathes as the kiss breaks.

"Denial," Naoe says as he bites at Takaya's neck, "will get you nowhere."

It seems Takaya's neck is one of his most sensitive spots because now he's practically writhing – but maybe that's just what happens when you start giving into centuries of pent-up frustration, smoldering looks can only take you so far. He's trapped between Naoe and the cheap wooden table and Nagahide can't see what Naoe just did with the hand that was on Takaya's hip, but it must have been something good because Takaya's swearing again and his back arches as he pulls Naoe down to kiss him again. Nagahide manages to catch "fuck, yes, maybe for now" in the stream of obscenities. "I hate you, shit, do that again."

Takaya, unlike Kagetora, would probably agree to be anything Naoe wanted him to be if he pushed at the right angle. Their relationship is not so much about how hard as about how.

Well, that and Takaya's in no state to complain.

Aesthetic value aside, Nagahide is smug knowing that at least this time Naoe and Takaya are doing something more than just yelling at each other and almost laughing at the fact that Takaya can change his mind so quickly. He can only imagine how much it must've been killing Naoe to walk in and find his Kagetora - because Takaya will always be Kagetora to Naoe - moaning wantonly and sprawled gracelessly on top of someone else.

Naoe doesn't seem to be objecting to the outcome, though, and neither does Takaya, now sitting on the table with Naoe standing between his spread legs. Takaya would, Nagahide thinks, be a very dangerous prostitute should he ever decide to sell himself.

Naoe's eyes are heated as he shoots a triumphant glance at Nagahide as if to say that even if Nagahide got there first, Takaya is still his, and he bites Takaya's neck again.

Well, Nagahide can't let Naoe get too self-satisfied, and much as the whole idea was to get Naoe and Kagetora, Takaya, whoever he is today, to stop running around in circles, he doesn't want Naoe to think he's won. He takes off his glasses and places them on the floor under the chair, hoping to save them from being destroyed and the table's not the safest place for anything at the moment. Stands up without bothering to make himself any more presentable and takes the two steps required to bring him next to Takaya. Naoe's still fascinated by Takaya's neck and Nagahide takes the opportunity to lean in and kiss Takaya again, one hand on the side of his face.

He knows Naoe's not happy with this but he doesn't care because if they're going to realize how stupid they're being, someone has to something drastic, and it's been established that it may as well be him. Haruie's not stupid enough for anything like this. Maybe he's underestimated just how far from unamused Naoe is, however, when Naoe pulls him backward by his arm and did he have to go for the area that's already been manhandled once?

"What do you think you're doing?" Naoe asks, looking much more dangerous than Nagahide had expected even from someone as close to the edge of psychosis as Naoe is.

Takaya must be feeling very neglected at the moment, Nagahide thinks with a sardonic smile, because Naoe has stepped back and dragged Nagahide with him. "Well, when two people like each other very much…" he says sarcastically, smiling because he knows it's going to infuriate Naoe even more and he thinks he's owed something for tolerating so many years of stupidity.

Naoe does not seem amused, and Nagahide has always enjoyed shocking him, so he figures he doesn't have much to lose by leaning up and kissing him, if only to see how he'll react.

Much to his surprise, he feels Naoe smirk and kiss him back and pull him closer and he would be wondering how the hell Kagetora ever managed to resist opportunities like this one if he weren't being rendered uselessly incoherent by the fact that Naoe is very, very good at this.

He hears movement from the direction of the table and can only imagine what this is doing to Takaya but can't be bothered to care, much like he doesn't care about the fact that he knows that he's nothing more than a pawn that happens to need to be lost for the next move in their game because he put himself there and it's too late to regret it now, he's past the point where he can just walk away, and stupid Nagahide, did he really think he could try something like this without getting sacrificed?

Does it really bother him as much as the voice in the back of his head that sounds disturbingly like Haruie insists it should?

He wonders if Takaya is jealous, especially as Naoe reaches up and pulls Nagahide's hair out of its customary ponytail and wraps one of his hands in it. The similarity of this gesture to what Naoe was doing earlier isn't lost on Nagahide and he hopes briefly that Takaya is jealous because maybe it will stop him being so stupid in the future.

If he keeps telling himself that he is only letting them use him to eventually get close enough to each other, he can ignore how attached he seems to be getting to the proceedings and how all his thoughts have started running together into a stream of nonsense that's inevitably going to end in "please god fuck me," dignity be damned.

He can't remember when he closed his eyes but he opens them to sneak a glance at Takaya out of the corner of his eye and nearly laughs. Takaya is flushed and scowling and hasn't moved, and his hands are clutching the table so hard his knuckles are turning white. His shoulders are heaving, though whether his heavy breathing is courtesy anger or arousal is anyone's guess, and he looks like he's so hard it probably has to be almost painful.

Naoe doesn't seem to be concerned with Takaya at the moment, though, and his free hand goes for the buttons on Nagahide's shirt as he maneuvers him backward toward the bed. When his back hits the mattress Nagahide can't help but wonder how far Naoe plans to take this but he's suddenly spellbound by the simplest actions as Naoe shrugs off his jacket and undoes his tie and shirtcuffs; there's something hypnotic about watching parts of Naoe come undone and if Naoe's as good in bed as he is out of it Nagahide isn't going to object. He can hardly breathe, hardly think anymore and he's surrounded in a heavy fog of arousal with sharp points of awareness where Naoe touches him. Takaya's still frozen and Nagahide can only assume he finds the sight just as compelling before Naoe's on the bed on top of him and this is certainly somewhere he never thought he'd be but now that he's here he's far from complaining.

He hisses and swears and arches desperately as Naoe does something with his hips, he's beyond enough coherency to even bother trying to think of what, and Naoe's kissing him again, messy but not any less intense, and rubbing against him in right places he didn't even know existed until now and Kagetora was clearly either never a sane man or saner than they all thought if he turned this down.

Judging by the frustrated noises coming from Takaya's direction, it's a decision he regrets, and Nagahide throws his head back and laughs breathlessly. Naoe bites his collarbone and starts tracing a path down Nagahide's chest with his mouth as he unbuttons his shirt and Nagahide's gasping and close to begging Naoe to just fuck him already, get him off somehow, he doesn't care how, before he loses his mind. He can feel Takaya's eyes on him, he's being glared at like Takaya wants him to sink to the lowest levels of whatever hell he believes in, or maybe Takaya's already in his definition of hell. But he can't bring himself to worry that his liege lord wants him to burst into flames because he already feels like he's going to. He almost doesn't notice Naoe's fingers pulling his pants off his hips but when he feels Naoe's mouth on his erection he swears so loudly he thinks they heard him in the next room and bites his lip so hard he thinks he's drawn blood.

"I can't believe you!"

Takaya's yelling cuts through the haze surrounding Nagahide's brain, as does the thump of Takaya's feet hitting the floor.

"Both of you! Naoe, you told me...and Chiaki...I thought...did you forget I was right here?"

Nagahide can't tell whether Takaya's on the verge of screaming or crying, but he almost laughs because there was no way either he or Naoe could have ever forgotten Takaya was there.

Takaya is always there in everything Naoe does even if he doesn't realize it.

Naoe stands up and Nagahide's brain manages a dazed protest but it's overlooked as he watches Naoe walk toward Takaya. Walk is the wrong word to use, he thinks. Naoe is not walking so much as stalking seductively, if such a thing is possible.

"Quite to the contrary, Takaya-san," Naoe says as he prowls and Takaya's retreating as Naoe gets closer until he's got his back to the wall. "Though I don't see why it bothers you, as you had no problem when it was you in my place."

"That was different! I didn't- I wasn't going to-"

Nagahide can't see Naoe's expression now that he's turned away but he can see Takaya, and he can see that he looks like he wants to run.

"I don't believe you."

He vaguely thinks he should be offended on Takaya's behalf because Takaya seems to have decided to stay and glare rather than run and Nagahide's sure that Naoe's standing too close for Takaya to be comfortable. Not that Takaya has any room to complain; the way he was kissing Naoe only minutes ago, he has no right to try and back out of this now.

"Get the hell away from me!"

He's going to have to say it like he means it if he wants Naoe to actually do anything, Nagahide thinks, because Takaya is not struggling as much as his words suggest he would be.

"No."

Takaya reaches up his arm like he wants to slap Naoe and that's definitely not any sort of real resistance at all in Nagahide's opinion because he's sure Takaya knows better than to slap someone he's trying to hurt. Especially if that someone is Naoe, because as he proves in the next few seconds, he'll just pin Takaya's wrists above his head.

"You-"

Takaya almost sounds defeated now, but he's still scowling up at Naoe with the same fire in his eyes, and Naoe's low laugh sends shivers down Nagahide's spine and seems like it's having a similar effect on Takaya. Naoe doesn't bother replying, just runs a hand along Takaya's jawline before leans down and kisses him like he's trying to mark him and Takaya arches shamelessly into Naoe's touch.

Naoe lets go of Takaya's wrists as he kisses him and wraps his fingers in one of Takaya's beltloops, splaying the other hand on his shoulder and tugging him closer as Takaya's arms come up to clutch at the back of Naoe's shirt, fingers scrabbling for a grip on the fabric.

"You bastard," Takaya hisses, breaking the kiss but he tightens his grip. "I told you to stop fucking around with me. You left me, you can't do this now."

Nagahide is going to kill them both someday, he thinks. Takaya's glaring again and he has no idea what Naoe's doing but he's not moving.

"Even now you're still messing with me!" Takaya's not yelling yet, but he will be. "I thought after everything you'd finally learn, but I guess I was wrong."

And when he kills them, he will do it slowly and painfully. It won't change anything, because this is just another lifetime in a series of centuries, but it will make him feel better.

"First you come in here acting all high and mighty like I'm your property and then you go and practically fuck him with me right here, what the hell gives you the right?"

Takaya's yelling now and his hands have moved to his pockets and Nagahide assumes it would not be a good idea to interrupt and point out that Takaya did at one point agree with Naoe's insistence that he belonged to him.

"I didn't think you'd mind."

Nagahide can hear the smile in Naoe's voice and that it's not helping the situation.

"Why the hell wouldn't I mind? You can't tell me you love me and then sleep around!"

"You have some interesting notions about love, don't you."

Takaya winces. For a moment all shades of Kagetora disappear and he is just a boy who is too young for this, too young for Naoe and his obsession and lies and maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, because if Kagetora couldn't be bothered to come to terms with Naoe then how can Takaya?

He'd interrupt, but he knows that for the moment he may as well not be in the room for all the awareness they have of his presence. Their world consists of each other and very little else, as it frequently if not always does.

He was expecting to come out of this at least frustrated physically, but he was hoping for at least more mental resolution.

Takaya turns his head away. "I just thought…"

"Whatever you thought, you thought wrong," Naoe says, and Nagahide thinks that may be a bit unnecessarily vicious.

But then. Naoe. Maybe par for the course, then, though the spite was usually Kagetora's department.

"I hate you," Takaya's not yelling anymore and he sounds younger than he is and looks like he hates himself for sounding so vulnerable.

"No, you don't."

"I do!" Back to the raised voice and it's understandable considering Naoe's being even more difficult than usual. "I hate you but I can't leave you and I hate that even more!"

He pushes Naoe away and walks toward the bed and Nagahide knows this isn't going to be good for anyone involved. "You…"

Nagahide gives a long-suffering sigh and shifts from leaning back on his elbows to sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling up his jeans. "Yes?"

Takaya doesn't say anything, just shoots a glare at Naoe before sliding onto Nagahide's lap and grabbing his face in both hands before kissing him again. Nagahide thinks he should be accustomed to this at this point and so he kisses Takaya back, pulling him closer with hands on the small of his back that slide up his shirt and dance along his spine.

Takaya looks back at Naoe again, watches him smirk and mutters "I don't fucking think so" before he kisses Nagahide again, pushes against him trying to get even closer, and as the pressure forces Nagahide onto his back Takaya still doesn't let go, pushing hot and hard as Nagahide wonders if he wants to rub Naoe off his skin.

Nagahide realizes he's still just being used but he doesn't really care because it's what he was expecting and this time Takaya's kissing him like he knows he wants to be kissing Naoe, brutal and full of frustration and centuries of stupid, stupid games when everyone knows what they both want, and he's sure they're both idiots because if they handle him like this the way they handle each other must be mind-blowing. It does help that Naoe left him pining for contact and he wonders briefly if this is how Takaya feels all the time, but Takaya's hands are on his face and in his hair and he can't hear anything so Naoe must not have decided what to do yet but it's only a matter of time.

He can feel Takaya push his shirt off his shoulders, there's not much work to do there that Naoe hasn't done already, and moves his hands off Takaya so he can shrug it off before breaking the kiss and smiling sarcastically as reaches for the bottom of Takaya's shirt. Turn and turn about, after all, and Takaya raises his arms to let Nagahide pull his shirt off before Nagahide flips over and pushes Takaya back down onto the bed.

Naoe still hasn't done anything and Nagahide pushes him out of his mind as he kisses Takaya again, Takaya who whimpers as Nagahide slides his hand down his body and into his jeans into what seems a familiar position and writhes as Nagahide starts moving his hand up and down his erection with maddeningly slow, sure strokes. He's stopped kissing him and Takaya can't seem to stop the flow of constant obscenities, cursing and begging and Nagahide thinks that if Takaya gets past incoherence and "please, Chiaki," to anything vaguely resembling "fuck me" he's going to hear footsteps at any second.

He reaches over the nightstand drawer in the blind hope that there's going to be something in there and snickers when his hand lands on a small plastic tube.

"Someone's optimistic," he mutters to more to himself than anyone else and shifts his attention back to Takaya, who looks nervous before he looks over Nagahide's shoulder and Nagahide can only assume he's looking at Naoe because suddenly he grabs him by the back of the neck and pulls him down for another kiss.

"Just relax," he says, and this time it's directed toward Takaya, who shudders and jerks when Nagahide hooks his fingers in his waistband and pulls off his pants, crawling down Takaya's body in the process, and now, Nagahide thinks, Naoe must have reached even his breaking point because he feels fingers tangle in his hair that aren't Takaya's and aren't very gentle.

"What are you doing?" Naoe asks, dangerously calmly, and Nagahide smirks because it's really about time.

"What he wants me to. You should try it sometime."

Nagahide thinks maybe Naoe would look hurt if he wasn't so busy being furious and maybe he should get out while he still can. "I'll get up if you let go of my hair?" he offers, and Naoe doesn't look happy but lets go so he stands up.

Naoe scowls as he goes back toward Takaya's direction. "I'm not wandering the hallways shirtless," Nagahide says with an amused arch of his eyebrow as he bends to get his shirt off the floor and before he leaves he bends down again to kiss Takaya because Naoe can always use a reminder of why, exactly, he's kicking Nagahide out of the room.

He notices that this time Takaya doesn't close his eyes, just stares at Naoe over Nagahide's shoulder.

He stands up before Naoe can start trying to inflict serious bodily harm and turns around. "Glasses," he smirks, and thinks Naoe's about to spontaneously combust. He laughs slightly to himself as he saunters over to the chair and to pick up his glasses, and he winks at Naoe as he tosses him the plastic tube before walking out the door.

He pauses outside the door, once it closes, and presses his ear against it. They're yelling about something, but it goes quiet quickly and he hopes they're doing what he thinks they are. When he hears Takaya start swearing rapidly and meaninglessly he knows they are and so he smirks and walks away, nonchalant about the fact that he's now walking through the hallways with his jeans sloppily done-up and shirt unbuttoned and he doesn't want to think about the state of his hair.

He'd feel jealous if they were anyone but Naoe and Kagetora, and dirty and used if he were anyone but himself and had done anything but ask for what he got. And if he stops for a minute to lean his forehead against his own hotel room door once he enters and it clicks shut, and curses himself and circumstance as his hair falls down around his face, there's not anyone there to notice.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this is somehow all tammaiya's fault, as she threatened to steal it and post it for me if I didn't stop my obsessive editing. Title and summary from Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXIX. Mm, sacrilege.


End file.
